Simply another method of clicking a computer mouse. Could be wireless, etc.
"and your little dog, too!" "there's no place like home..."-- csea, Nov 01 2012 Alterother's thumb http://www.neowin.n...pt-comfort-keyboardMicrosoft's new keyboard [PainOCommonSense, Nov 02 2012] The only keyboard http://www.daskeyboard.com/Das Keyboard Ultimate [PainOCommonSense, Nov 02 2012] Is this somehow involving the heel of the palm, or does this device go on the floor?-- Alterother, Nov 01 2012 Could be built into socks, sandals, shoes, etc.-- csea, Nov 01 2012 You have something here.
You could use the spare space in the heel of your shoes with a small laser on the tip of the toes to act as a wireless mouse charged through some sort of piezoelectric method. Thereby freeing up your hands to concentrate on the keyboard.
Its kind of a rear guard action against the onslaught of touch screen displays. !
Sadly the concept has been half baked a number of times.-- PainOCommonSense, Nov 01 2012 Strange that computer interfaces focus on the hands. Church organists have had foot-keyboards (pedalboards) for centuries. It would make a lot of sense if the feet were given, for example, vowels plus shift and command keys.-- pocmloc, Nov 01 2012 I've often thought that it would be great to have a shift key under my left thumb, since I always space with my right. Oddly enough, I'm left-handed, but my left thumb just hangs there uselessly while my other nine fingers dance frenetically across the keys. A shift pedal would work just as well, and it would form a natural transition for helicopter pilots* who have decided to write a book. The only drawback to that would be that I still wouldn't have anything to do with my left thumb.
* do you know any helicopter pilots, active or retired? Invite one over to dinner and surreptitiously glance under the table--their feet are _always_ moving!-- Alterother, Nov 01 2012 Same with pianists who try to play the harpsichord!-- pocmloc, Nov 01 2012 Alterother I think I may have found you something to do with the left thumb <link>-- PainOCommonSense, Nov 02 2012 Ha! I have a keyboard from the mid 90s with a split space bar, backspace on the left half. It's a really bad idea. Computer keyboards are not just used in standard touch-typing mode - gaming, pausing media players, etc. are stuffed up by such 'improvements'.
I also have a Microsoft keyboard, with the Insert, Home etc keys in a 3X2 arrangement instead of the usual 2X3, and with the Esc ... F12 keys smooshed closer together. Again, stupid and pointless changes. Probably intended (as usual) to make the rest of the world not Microsoft compatible.
Two pieces of hardware, useless except for pointing at and saying "Look! *That's* what's wrong with the world."-- spidermother, Nov 02 2012 Thanks, [bigsleep]. Just spent a few minutes gazing at that. So restful. So correct.-- spidermother, Nov 02 2012 I like this.-- blissmiss, Nov 02 2012 I would recommend Das Keyboard <link> and if you guys are so fussy. you can tipex whatever commands you want on to it.
I have edited the registry on mine to remove the inherently obsolete CAPS LOCK on mine. it now only serves as an alternative Shift key.-- PainOCommonSense, Nov 02 2012 // Computer keyboards are not just used in standard touch-typing mode //
Mine is. Some of us still just need a word processor without extraneous crap.
[Payne], I think you may indeed have found something for me--I use backspace frequently and am currently chained to Vista (which I have managed to mostly hamstring into compliance).-- Alterother, Nov 02 2012 "There's no place like home page."-- Cuit_au_Four, Nov 02 2012 //Mine is// Fair enough. I was invoking the "if it ain't broke..." principle, and also pointing out that a supposedly new concept has been around for decades.
But my space bar - and probably many others - has deeper standard-right-thumb-position wear, and lighter 'other' wear along its length. I tried to like the split space-bar keyboard, and ended up hating it.-- spidermother, Nov 03 2012 random, halfbakery